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Arlene Croce on Balanchine


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Well, I'm reporting back on my attempt to obtain the Croce book on Balanchine from chaos.com, one of two Australian sites that listed the book for sale. It was all a mistake, of course -- the book has not been released. I ordered it, paid over $60 for it, and waited. Nothing. After an inquiry by e-mail, chaos conceded that the book was "not currently available" and refunded my money. So although I lost nothing in the end, my hopes were cruelly dashed once again.

I'm back to checking amazon.com on a regular basis, but it's getting harder to believe that this volume will ever see the light of day. I want it too badly to give up, though. If it's not ever going to be published, I wish someone would announce that fact so I could stop all this ridiculous waiting. I think I first heard about it nearly six years ago. *** sigh ***

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Thanks for your update/caveat, Phaedra. I'm relieved to hear that you got your money back. With a vendor named Chaos, I would not have been surprised if you'd seen the last of those sixty bucks! Their offering of a yet nonexistent item is a clue that the moniker fits. :thumbsup:

If it's any comfort, you are not alone in your impatience and frustration.

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It surprises me how little information turns up when you Google various combinations of Croce and anything like "book on Balanchine." Most of it actually seems to come from Ballet Talk! :blink: There seems to be a wall of silence on this one, which surprises me in a world so rumor-ridden as publishing.

Of course we don't want to post gossip or supposition, but I'm bewildered by a situation in which books are being offered for sale with no real discussion of them in the legitimate book press. Or am I missing something? :dunno:

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Phaedra, maybe if you give up, put a sign in your book case that says, "No longer reserved for the nonexistence Croce book," it will appear :blink: I first heard about it a few years before Balanchine died, and that's a year or two ago!

I think why it keeps appearing as a book available for sale is that it is on the publishers' spring, summer, fall, winter, list. Everyone's prepared for it, then it doesn't happen, and the "book not available at this time" sign goes up. (I don't know what's happening with this one, but what I've written applies generally.)

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I think why it keeps appearing as a book available for sale is that it is on the publishers' spring, summer, fall, winter, list. Everyone's prepared for it, then it doesn't happen, and the "book not available at this time" sign goes up. (I don't know what's happening with this one, but what I've written applies generally.)
This makes sense to me, at least as far as the continued advertising of "advanced sale." Thanks, Alexandra.
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No I'm not posting to announce the imminent publication of the book, sorry. Given how long we've waited, who could believe it if I did? It's just that I've just been reading an interview with Robert Gottlieb in the Paris Review. The intro says he has been working on "Arlene Croce’s study of Balanchine." The date the interview was published? Fall 1994.

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From a June 1985 Dance Magazine news story about Guggenheim Awards winner Arlene Croce:

Croce . . . is writing a book on the ballets of George Balanchine. "It's going to be a concentrated study of Balanchine's methods and technique," Croce said. 'But the work won't really start until the fall."

36 years and counting . . . it's the Chinese Democracy of dance books!

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Interesting to speculate on the reasons - writer's block? Or maybe Croce wasn't/isn't suited to the long form? Maybe there's a lot of material waiting to be cobbled together. Hard to imagine, if they got as far as announcing publication.

In any case, I wish her long life and health, and I'm sorry we never got the book.

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